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NZ MP urges ice public health campaign

ELIZABETH JACKSON: Methamphetamine use is increasing so dramatically in Australia there are calls today for a public health campaign warning of the drug's dangers.

New Zealand MP Mike Sabin says it's crucial to ram home the message to young people as soon as possible.

He's been in Melbourne this week for a summit on methamphetamine use.

Samantha Donovan reports - and a warning that this story does contain some disturbing descriptions.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: New Zealand MP Mike Sabin saw the impact of methamphetamine can have during his career as a police detective.

MIKE SABIN: It makes people quite psychotic and violent and entirely irrational, and I guess the turning point for me was a triple fatality, where a father had actually severed his children's heads and stabbed an innocent bystander who came to try and assist - just horrific, makes you question civilisation.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: Since leaving the police force, Mike Sabin has been travelling the world studying ways to tackle ice use, which he's says is the world's biggest drug problem.

MIKE SABIN: It's the only hard drug in the world that can be cooked on a kitchen bench with retail chemicals, and it absolutely falls into the blind spot of the population, the sort of average Aussie or Kiwi if you like, who just have never been exposed to a hard drug problem and it consumes their population really quickly.

Because it's a stimulant, the drug keeps people awake, it keeps people active, and they feel reinforced by using it. So it has these particular qualities that see it grab hold very, very quickly.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: Mike Sabin has told a methamphetamine summit in Melbourne that Australia and New Zealand need to focus on prevention to bring the ice problem under control.

MIKE SABIN: When was the last time you saw a major campaign on understanding ice addiction, steering clear of the stuff, how to make good decisions on it? We just don't see that sort of level of public health awareness and engagement to try and encourage the population to make sound and good decisions.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: And do you tackle a particular age group?

MIKE SABIN: I think the most effective demand reduction and the changes, in terms of culture, will come from adolescents - those up to the age of 25. Honestly, a lot of people my age - 40s and 50s - we're old dogs and the new tricks don't stick so well. 'Don't you go out and get drunk, young man - now pass me a bottle of wine', you know? Whereas the younger generation that's far more savvy about looking after the environment you live in and the body in which you live, I think there's a large group of youngsters out there who are fearful of the consequences of the drug environment that they exist in.

And we need to get alongside them and empower them, and help and challenge them to help challenge the bureaucracy and the hierarchy on whether or not we should just accept that this is going to happen and try and fix it afterwards, or whether we can prevent it from happening in the first place.

SAMANTHA DONOVAN: Mike Sabin gave evidence to the Victorian Parliamentary Inquiry into the supply and use of methamphetamines this week.

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